


Leaves in the Park on Sunday (Autumn)

by ladygray99



Category: White Collar
Genre: Community: whitecollar100, Drabble, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-28
Updated: 2011-06-28
Packaged: 2017-10-20 19:49:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/216502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladygray99/pseuds/ladygray99
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>June and Neal stroll through the park.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leaves in the Park on Sunday (Autumn)

Neal's arm was warm in hers as they strolled through the park, the first red fallen leaves swirling around their feet. The air was cool but not yet the biting cold of winter. Still, Neal had thrown an overcoat over his light linen suit. June knew the coat well and if she looked away she could almost pretend it was Byron on her arm and she was still young.

A young couple strolled by, their paces long and quick. The woman looked over her should at them. June guessed at what she must think; a woman in the autumn of her years on the arm of a man half her age with a conman's smile. She didn't mind. Neal was good company, especially now that the grandchildren were back in school.

Neal kicked at some leaves in a moment of mirth. June understood. The first year Byron was out of prison she would find him kicking leaves, or plucking bits of grass, or just sitting with his face turned towards the sun like a flower kept too long in the dark.

Of course, these days, June found herself turning towards the sun when she could as the winter ache in her bones crept in earlier each year. She knew a day would come, soon enough, when winter would become spring and that cold ache would simply stay.

They climbed the steps of the park gazebo where she once sat and watched children play and sipped iced tea with the other mothers all long gone; dead or moved away.

June sat and Neal sat close gifting her that extra heat, that extra moment of memory of being young, her belly full in September for a winter birth and Byron sitting so close she believed she could live off his warmth forever.


End file.
